Get to Work Book

When I started my planner journey on the 1st of January I knew there would be lots of experimenting as I found the right fit for me. How I do things today is very different to how I did them 8 months ago, but all the changes I made have led me to the most efficient method for me. If it doesn't work for YOU then it's not going to make your life any easier or help to reach your goals.

Last year I wrote a diary every day. It was a Moleskin page a day soft cover A5 diary, like the ones I have bought (and not used) for years. Once I knew that I was able to commit to a daily diary/planning regime I treated myself to the Carpe Diem planner. The plan was to use the planner for appointments and daily plans alongside a Moleskin for memory keeping. This worked well for about 5 months.

Then I felt a shift.......

I missed paper crafting and memory keeping but knew that I wasn't going to get back into scrapbooking in the conventional way any time soon. The CD planner lends itself to 'making pretty' and with the addition of the daily page (ie page a day) inserts I had a great memory planning tool. At the end of each month I file the pages in a simple stories binder adding photos (see the CHEERZ category to get details of my photo printing) and elements. At the end of the year I'll have an album of 2016, I guess it's a little like project life!

Of course this meant I didn't have a planner. And I loved planning, even though i'm not hugely busy outside of my work day, I still enjoyed the process of planning and wanted to keep doing it. SO.....I treated myself to the Get To Work Book by Elise (link at the bottom of this post)! I was so tempted to buy this last year but really wanted to stick to the Moleskin. It's a brand I know and love and my CD planner was going to be my planner anyway.

I bought the 2016/2017 edition of the book although I much prefer January to December planners and diaries so I'll be buying the 2017 version as soon as it's on sale. With that is mind I did think long and hard because this isn't a cheap book, especially when you're not using half of it. It comes in at $55, and the ruler and book band are priced individually, in addition is international postage. BUT the hefty price tag is so worth it when you open the package and take the book out of the box! Firstly it is so well packaged and presented, and the little postcard of dashboard images is just perfect to pin up at my desk. The coaster I punched and put in my CD planner on the day the GTWB arrived, another great little piece of inspiration. Elise has written up the story behind each dashboard image which I love. Great thought has gone into every part of this product.

The clean lines and total lack of colour means there are no distractions. It's a book designed to keep you on track to reaching goals and getting things done, one day at a time. For me there is no making pretty, it's not for embellishing, it's functional and I love it. It's combined a planner for life, goal setting for yarn craft, blog post planner and budget keeper.

It's a great size book too. Lots of space for writing lists and setting tasks for the day as well as action items for the week and planning larger projects. It's been a great tool for me to keep track of my exercise too. There are great walk though videos on the Get To Work Book website so if you're undecided go check them out.

Top Tip: I stole the idea of using a highlighter to score off done items rather than crossing them out. It's so evident what/how many items have been ticked off, and is just visually vibrant!

So getting back to this blog posts title - Planning 2017 - I've decided to carry on this way of planning and memory keeping in 2017, and I have already had a little shop for 2017 supplies (although i'm not going to set up my 2017 planner until the week between Christmas and New Year). I've been using the two books alongside each other now for two months and i'm so happy I made the change. This fits my life and that's why it works!

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Hello and welcome to my little corner of the world wide web. My name is Caroline, I am wife to Stuart, and mum to Josh the cat and Julia and Joan, the chickens. I'm addicted to all things crafty, spending my free time crocheting, knitting or paper crafting. Thanks for visiting!